Calling this book the “Black Harry Potter” or referring to it as “if Harry Potter went to an HBCU” was a bit of a stretch. I wish I hadn’t heard any of that before reading, but such is the eye rolling nature of BookTok and here I am…

Anyways, this book was steeped in Blackness and magic and for that, I liked it. It gave me more Hillman University vibes than Hogworts and the only similarities between Harry and Malik is that they were both males born with incredible magic that they didn’t really understand the full power of, while also navigating the real world even though they belonged to another world made for people like them.

I think I might have probably enjoyed this better if I hadn’t listened to it, but I was not the biggest fan of the narration at all. It reminded me of times where I taught young Black men who were incredibly disrespectful to most everyone and oblivious to help when it was being offered. I’m not going to lie and say it wasn’t filled with a little toxic masculinity from Malik and given he was 17 with a complicated family history, I tried to give him grace for that, but it still made him somewhat of a complex and a bit unlikeable main character to me.

It looks like there will be a sequel, so I hope he comes back a little more mature and less emotionally damaged/has some time to heal from the scars and trauma he experienced, although, I’m not entirely counting on it.